Monday, 24 September 2012

The Spacewhacker

Bob Lennox from Glasgow writes about his memories of 'The Spacewhacker' - a Beezer back page Sci-Fi serial:

Kids of today seem to have all kinds of media literally at
their fingertips.In my youth, it could
seem a long wait before you could get your hands on the latest weekly edition
to see how your favourite comic characters had fared in their cliffhanger adventures.

I was a Beezer fan, and I had gratefully accepted my
grandmother’s offerto buy it on a
weekly basis and bring it with her when she visited, each Wednesday.It seemed a good idea at the time, however,
my local shop round the corner from our school took delivery of it on a
Monday.I had become involved with
Spacewhacker, a science fiction strip on the back page, and my overwhelming
desire tosneak a view of that all-important
series inevitably led me to the shop in my school lunch hour.

“Shepherds” was a large store with a newsagent section near
the door.I soon learned that, if you
sidled in with some other customers, by the time they were being served, you
could have located the colourful mag and skilfully prised it forward against
the elastic steel spring, and by cocking your head, you could quickly read the
top half of the back page (or at least get the gist of the storyline from the
pictures) before you were discovered, and without actually removing the comic
from the stand. On at least one occasion
I managed to read the entire page before being questioned.Unfortunatelyit didn’t take long before my “game” was discovered.Pocket money was scarce, and I couldn’t
justify buying a copy, knowing granny would bring it later in the week.Eventually, she changed her routine, didn’t
order it for me any more, and I was able to buy it on first sight on a Monday
morning. Such a relief.

Science fiction had not yet hit television, and our only
source was the ABC minors Saturday morning cinema, with some rather corny
serials whose visual effects seemed amateurish even to a seven year-old.However, Spacewhacker seemed a more realistic
proposition altogether.The artwork was
simple but effective and somehow credible.

The Purple Planet, the location for the strip, featured
landscapes and detailed vegetation that you could believe in. The main
characters, Slim, Bob and Tess, were part of an Australian family who were on
an expedition to explore the planetin the
“Spacewhacker”, a vehicle that looked like a giant red milk float. Bob and Tess
were portrayed as able and plucky teenagers, andobviously brother and sister, but I was never
quite sure if the youthful but grey-haired Slimwas an older brother or their father.

The “Whacker” as it was often referred to, was driven by
electricity and had two means of propulsion – on eight steerable rubber
rollerson flat terrain, or could walk
on extended stilts on more difficult landscapes.It could also operate under water, but needed
time to close its air ports. They got into deep trouble on one occasion when,
outrunning some enemy, they hit the water before the ports could be closed,
rendering the vehicle inoperable for some time, before emergency repairs could
be carried out. The external casing could also be electrified, proving useful
when hostile natives ensnared it with their nets and proceeded to clamber over
the outside. They all received a nasty shock, enablingthe “Whacker” and its crew to escape.

By the time I started reading the Beezer, Spacewhackerwas already well into its series. The crew
had picked up a local, called “Charlie Greenskin”, who was a rather thin
humanoid with a green skin, an oval shaped head and large ears.He had a language of his own (Urka urka I
believe was one of his phrases, but DC Thomson were enlightened enough to
provide us with an English translation.)

One of his characteristics was the ability to glide, using
two skin flaps, one under each arm, so that when his arms were outstretched,
they formed primitive wings. I actually tried this method, tying my dressing
gown to my arms in the same style – it certainly looked the part, but as I
found to my cost (and much to the amusement of two friends witnessing the
event) I did not become airborne, crashing to the ground having launched myself
offthe sideboard. I consoled myself with the thought that the
atmosphere on Purple Planet must have been different........

I was a great dinosaur fan around this time, and was
thrilled to note that Purple Planetplayed host to several familiar species.Another useful feature were “flying pumpkins” – a kind of elongated
gourd, conveniently sized so that the erstwhile passenger could sit comfortably
astride one, leaning back to puncture it at the rear with a knife, releasing
its gas, then severing the stalk, allowing the vegetable to take to the air,
bearing the rider along with it until it eventually ran out of gas.

However it was the empire of the Ramins that really grabbed
my imagination. The first sight of this blue-skinned race was of a guard in
Roman-style uniform standing watch over a strange walled and moated city.When he took off his helmet to wipe the sweat
from his brow, he revealed an angular face with a sharp pointed nose. His name,
if I recall, was Zarco Khan.

TheRamins were a
warlike people, who had captured and enslaved some of Charlie Greenskin’s
relatives to work in their plantations, so it was up to our heroes to overthrow
this regime and rescue the enslaved greenskins.The actual details of this adventure now escape me (it was some fifty
years ago....) but I remember being quite taken with the drama of it all.

I believe the “Spacewhacker” series had evolved from an
earlier strip entitled “Bushwacker”, which involved Slim, Bob and Tess back in
Australia, cavorting about on a simpler vehicle which seemed to be a cross
between a dinghy-sized yacht and a large skateboard.If anyone has further recollections of either
of these strips, or indeed is willing to sell, share or post here scans that
they may have, I would be glad to hear from them.

Bob Lennox

Footnote:

The Spacwhacker ran from issue 322(17.03.62) to 422(15.02.64). It was illustrated by Terry Patrick. Further adventures continued in the annuals 1964, 1965, 1967 and 1970

4 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Yes bushwhacker was a land yacht looking like a swish cabin cruiser but having wheels to sail along the outback. The adventures went on for years.Then, as was said,The characters were taken into space in the Spacewhacker!

I also remember the SpaceWhacker although I didn't get to read many of the issues as another boy's comic was my main interest. I was very much impressed by the technology of this vehicle and its modes of locomotion. I seem to remember that it also had two very flexible and telescopic arms with some kind of end-effectors all similarly painted red. What an amazing machine - NASA take note! I'd been looking for links to this kind of article for many, many months so grateful thanks to Bob Lennox from Glasgow. I just wish I could get my hands on a few copies of those Beezer comics now. Peter Burton, Upton-Upon-Severn, UK.